Removal of 'police virus' and other ransomware

Problem description

Ransomware is a category of malware that demands compensation for data or functionality that it holds hostage. It will very often block access to the PC, and only allow the user to access the web to pay the ransom. Norman security software detects millions of ransomware variants, but every day hundreds of new variants are created.

Solution

If your PC has been infected it will often be very hard to perfom tasks like running virus scan or downloading removal tools, as the malware will block access to the PC.

In such cases most infections can be cleaned using the built in System Restore tool in Windows following these instructions: